Anita Arjundas, 

When Arjundas started out with the Mahindra Group in 2002, pushing the private sector SEZ business was “a concept-selling idea built around a long-term dream to develop barren land”. Arjundas, who considers herself something of an underdog, dealt with such situations when she joined Parrys Confectionery in Chennai in 1989. When she joined Mahindra World City, it was a project that had seen investments of Rs 150 crore but had no customers, no revenue, and no profits after four years. “Some would have called it professional hara-kiri to jump on board,” she says. But her yearning for such challenges has begun showing results as Mahindra’s two sites in Chennai and Jaipur boast 100 tenants each, including BMW, Renault, Infosys, Fujitec, and Deutsche Bank. Arjundas, the only woman on M&M’s group executive board, says two more Mahindra World City concepts are in the pipeline. She has now set her sights on the sub-Rs 10 lakh apartment category.